This invention relates to a device for ganging two or more articles of furniture, such as chairs.
It is often necessary to arrange a multitude of chairs in rows to provide an orderly seating arrangement. In addition to aesthetic reasons, the orderly arrangement of chairs in rows facilitates ingress and egress when large numbers of people are gathered together. Such an arrangement also maximizes seating capacity in a room of limited size and enhances sightlines of attendees while seated at an event.
Oftentimes movable chairs are used to create a row or multiple rows of chairs, to allow flexible seating arrangements, and many different uses of the same floor space. A disadvantage to using movable chairs is that chairs may be accidentally displaced, thus causing a row to become disorganized. In addition to disturbing the aesthetic appearance of a room, the ability to easily disorganize a row of movable chairs creates a safety problem if the room's occupants are required to quickly exit, such as in case of a fire. In fact, local fire codes frequently require adjacent chairs to be interconnected in certain situations.
Interconnecting chairs greatly increases the stability of a single chair and makes it difficult to move. Thus, interconnecting chairs via a ganging device is commonly done to increase safety and enhance the aesthetic appearance of a room when a row or multiple rows of two or more chairs are required.
Devices to gang chairs have been the subject of prior patents. U.S. Pat. No. 3,825,300 to Lieberman et. al. discloses a ganging clip movably mounted to the leg of a chair to receive the leg of an adjacent chair. U.S. Pat. No. 3,594,038 to Polsky et. al. discloses ganging connectors mounted to the leg of a chair for receiving a corresponding leg of an adjacent chair.
In each of these prior patents, the ganging device is employed on the legs of adjacent chairs, is in full view, and is generally not aesthetically pleasing. Unless the ganging device is totally removed, it is visible to an ordinary observer even when it is not attached to an adjacent chair. If the ganging device is completely removable, it must be stored and is liable to be misplaced. Also, many prior devices require adjacent chairs to be placed very close together in order for the ganging device to be used. This often creates uncomfortable seating arrangements. There is, therefore, a need for a ganging device which is self-storing, aesthetically pleasing, concealed when not in use, and allows for a comfortable seating arrangement when in use.